Beyond the Veil
by Insert Clever Potter Name Here
Summary: NOT a time travel fic, so to speak. / It's been nearly four years since Sirius fell through the veil, but who ever said he was dead? AU, Rated T
1. Chapter 1

_**So, this is not a time travel fic. I simply can't accept Sirius' death.**_

Grimmauld place had been fully restored in the two years since the end of the war, and had become Harry's home. He had stayed at the Burrow while Grimmauld was continuously fixed up, but as a few months ago, he had taken to Grimmauld as his own place, although others were visiting him more often than not.

The charms protecting it had been removed, and everyone came and went with ease, despite it still being hidden from the muggles surrounding them. They had left the tapestry of the Black ancestry, Harry had insisted- mostly because it kept Kreacher from lashing out. They had managed to remove the rest of the clutter that made this home dark and dingy, restoring the peeling wallpaper. The house was no longer buried under a constant layer of dust or Dark magic, and Hermione had even managed to outwit the portrait of Sirius' mother and the Permanent Sticking Charm holding it in place. It had taken almost a week, even with Remus helping her, but finally the portrait(which annoyed all of them and terrified the Lupin children) was gone. Even the furniture, which had an antique gothic feel, had been replaced with more cheerful(and more modern) counterparts.

Harry had insisted on finding a charm to place Andromeda(and Sirius) back on the tapestry, along with Ted and Tonks(plus Remus and children- their second son, Lyall John, had been born a couple of weeks before Christmas of 1999). Unfortunately, he had been searching for almost a year for such an enchantment and had no luck.

It was now January First, 2000. Fleur was a couple months away from delivering the first Weasley grandchild(everyone knew Bill wanted a girl), Ron and Hermione had married on the Christmas Eve that just passed(everyone was hoping Harry and Ginny would wait a couple more years), Harry had been made an Auror just a few weeks after the war(apparently, defeating Voldemort had given him experience and skills that even the most senior Auror didn't have). Tonks had been made Head Auror, Kingsley's insistance, with Harry as her Deputy(she was preparing him for the day he'd take the job from her). George was still working at the joke shop, with Ron's help. The loss of Fred had made George mention closing it down until one day, five months after Fred's death, he simply walked into Grimmauld during a family get together and announced he was continuing the shop("Fred would have called me a prat for thinking otherwise.").

Everyone was gathered in the downstairs kitchen of Grimmauld. For now, it was just the Weasleys(now Hermione was included as such- she was the most recent Mrs Weasley), Harry and the Lupins(sometimes along with Andromeda). Sometimes, to everyone's displeasure, Draco would end up visiting. There had been a time, a few weeks after the war, when Narcissa and Draco arrived at Andromeda's home and just like that, the sisters were sisters again. And the cousins were- well, polite to each other. Harry had even extended a polite hand to Draco, who returned it. Whether it was Lucius' death in the final fight that freed the mother and son from their stiff and evil ways or they just genuinely felt defeated and had decided to make amends with the little family they had left, it was never questioned.

Teddy, who had been copying the hair color of anyone within five feet of him(so it was a bright Weasley red most of the time), was perched on Ginny's lap. He was grabbing handfuls of her hair, copying the color, and laughing madly. She would gently take his hand out of her hair(he had a tendency to pull hair- a habit which neither parent had been able to break yet and couldn't quite figure out where he had picked it up), and he would revert back to the same light brown shade Remus had passed on to him. Remus, who was more grey than brown now, was sitting across the table and holding his younger son, who was barely two weeks old. Lyall, or Lye(as almost everyone had started calling him after Fleur declared his name too formal for an infant), had not inherited his mother's abilities. He had, however, begun to show possible signs of Lycanthropy- and the family was still a week away from his first full moon to find out for sure. His hair would remain the same dark shade of brown he had inherited from his mother's side of the family, but he had inherited his father's green eyes. Fleur was sitting next to Remus, having grown extremely connected to the newest Lupin. The others were spread out in various areas of the kitchen. Percy, Arthur, Tonks and Harry were discussing work at the far end of the table(Kingsley had been with them earlier, but as the current Minister, he had to return to the Ministry). George, Bill and Ron were over by the fire, discussing latest business tactics for the shop. Molly and Hermione were working on cooking dinner, Molly was showing Hermione the most useful household spells she used on a daily basis(which Hermione was excelling at). Andromeda was absent, she was having tea at Narcissa's home. Charlie had been around for Christmas, but had left a few days prior to return to Romania.

There were footsteps on the stairs, a common occurence around the holidays(Harry had made it known that anyone was welcome at anytime in his home). Years before, during the war, this would have prompted those around the kitchen to be frightened of who was joining them. They only looked up when they heard a voice bark: "What the Bloody Hell happened to my house?"

It was followed by the clearest word anyone had heard 20 month old Teddy ever mutter: "Padfoot!"


	2. Chapter 2

_**So, I wrote the first two chapters in one night. I didn't feel like having two paragraphs of Harry telling Sirius about the last year of the war, so I just condensed it.**_

Every occupant of the kitchen stared at the doorway as the figure came into light. Sure enough, looking exactly as he did on that night nearly four years ago, Sirius Black was standing in the doorway.

Remus was the first one to move. Fleur had taken Lyall a few moments earlier, and was now holding the child against her chest as she stared. She had heard the story of Sirius a few times.

"Sirius?" Remus asked, aiming his wand at the newcomer.

"Moony, you look terrible! The Full Moon isn't for a few more days-" His eyes flicked between the two infants in the room. "Who are they?"

Harry finally stood. "Sirius Black is dead, has been for nearly four years. I suggest you leave-"

"Harry?" Sirius asked in disbelief. Harry was a little taller than he had been during the fight at the Ministry, he also filled out and was no longer as scrawny as he used to be. Now, he had muscles(nothing compared to Charlie's), and he had developed slight stubble on his face in the past few weeks- after all, he had taken over the Auror department temporarily for the past two months, and was not getting much sleep. Sirius' eyes roamed the room, falling on each person in turn. They fell on Fleur, he had no idea who she was. They fell on Hermione and Ron, on Ginny and George- all older than he remembered and one kid short. He glanced at Tonks, who had long ago given up her pink hair for her natural shade.

He stepped forward, his eyes on George. "Fred, what happened to your ear?"

George paled. "Sickening." He said, dropping his parchment and standing. "I reckon you're a rogue that they-" He gestured to Harry and Tonks "- haven't managed to catch yet. Decided to disguise yourself, taunt us all about who is missing here. I bet you were one of the ones who did it- I bet you blew up that wall- I bet you killed Fred."

"Killed... Fred?" Sirius asked. "When did this happen? I've been gone a week-"

Tonks spoke now. "Sirius Black died four years ago, in 1996. A large group of us witnessed it,-"

"I can prove it!" Sirius said. "I know things- I can tell you anything. I know Moony here was harbouring a small crush on Tonks since the first time he met her last summer-"

"Hardly a secret anymore." Remus said, clutching his wand tighter. Sirius then noticed the ring on Remus' left hand. "And it was almost five years ago that we met."

"Harry's patronus is a stag!"

"Still very common knowledge." Harry said, reaching into his pocket for his wand.

"Okay, okay!" Sirius said, thinking hard. "Moony's first kiss was with James Potter!"

Remus paled, Tonks and Harry looked shocked. Ginny, Bill and Ron burst out laughing. Remus stowed his wand into his pocket. "No one knows that. No one alive knows about that. How did you find out?"

"I was there." Sirius said desperately. "I am Sirius Orion Black, I was a Gryffindor. I became an Animagus to help Moony here after we found out he was a werewolf in our second year."

There was silence in the kitchen again, broken only a few seconds later by Ginny crying out with an "Ow!" as Teddy yanked on her hair. She extracted her hair, again, from his grip. He looked at her, looked at the man who had just wandered in and said again: "Padfoot."

"See, the kid knows me- I don't even know the kid, who is this kid?" Sirius asked. "And my house-"

Tonks and Harry were muttering to one another, and finally Harry cleared his throat. "If you are Sirius,-"

"I am!"

"- will you take a truth potion?"

Sirius nodded. Harry nodded to Tonks, who disappeared into the fireplace in a flash of green. She returned a few seconds later, handing a bottle to Harry.

* * *

Two hours later, the mood had not shifted. Sirius felt he was the subject of some kind of study, the way everyone stared at him. He had said things he didn't even realising he remembered- things he would have rather left forgotten(such as the time he kissed Remus on a dare in their 7th year while Remus was studying).

"So, will someone tell me what's going on?" Sirius finally asked. "I still don't know who some of you are!"

Bill stood next to Fleur. "This is Fleur. We married in 1997-"

"1997? How is that possible?" Sirius asked. "It's 1996!"

"Sirius, it's the year 2000." Harry said. "And a lot has happened. First off, Voldemort is dead. I killed him in early 1998."

Sirius stared at him.

"Dumbledore died as well. And Mad-Eye." Harry glanced at George. "And Fred. A few students of Hogwarts died as well, many of them classmates of mine or Ginny's. A lot of Death Eaters are dead now too, the others are being tracked down and arrested,-"

"Thanks to a newly reformed Auror Department." Arthur said. "Courtesy of Tonks and Harry."

"Dumbledore...?" Sirius began to ask.

"Asked Snape to kill him, that was in 1997. And Voldemort killed Snape in 1998." Harry said. Sirius started shaking his head, confused. "Let me explain." Harry said quickly. He started with the aftermath of the Battle at the Ministry, ending with the Battle of Hogwarts(Sirius looked pleased when Harry said Bellatrix was taken down by Molly).

When Harry had finished, Sirius turned to Tonks and Remus. "Moony, you got married. I never thought I'd see the day- well, I guess I didn't _actually_ see the day, but- My godson is a godfather now!"

"Sirius-" Hermione started. "What happened? I mean, four years-"

"And you look exactly the same. Haven't aged a day." Bill added. "All of us, we've aged and been scarred in the past two alone."

"Like I said, I was sure it's only been a week." Sirius said.

"We saw you die." Tonks said. "We saw the curse. Or, I guess everyone except me. I didn't wake up until St Mungo's."

"Hermione, Ron and I missed it as well." Ginny said. "We weren't even in the same area-"

"Only Arthur, Kingsley, Harry and I were still standing when it happened." Remus explained. "We saw it."

"It was a Killing Curse. I saw it." Harry said. "I was standing right next to him."

"I don't know what happened." Sirius said. "I remember that it narrowly missed me, but I was still knocked back into that bloody veil."

"And?" Arthur prompted.

"I don't know." Sirius said. "I found myself outside of here, but I was so sure only a week had passed-"

"What happened during that time?" Hermione asked.

"Or did you just black out?" Tonks asked, leaving Sirius to snigger slightly at her use of the term 'black out'. Apparently Tonks hadn't realised this, as she gave him a look.

"I don't remember a thing. The last I remember was the battle, and taking over the duel when Bellatrix took down Tonks. I thought you had died, Tonks, I remember watching you fall and you didn't look alive-"

"Just a bad curse." Tonks said, waving it off. "Bellatrix always liked to cause as much injury to someone before killing them."

"Maybe it had something to do with the destruction of all of those Time Turners." Hermione said, from her place by the counter. "They kept repairing themselves and breaking again, maybe they prevented him from actually dying?"

"Is that possible?" Sirius asked, frowning.

"Well, we've seen a lot of impossible things in the last few years." Ron added. "Why not add this to the list?"


End file.
